CTT rolls out road bike classification
The move sees all open events enjoy their own road bike categories, which will also be recognised on Spindata
“You’ve got a road bike, so time trial” – that is the message from Cycling Time Trials as it launches sweeping new changes designed to encourage more riders to take up the sport.
From now on, all open events will feature separately classified road bike results, which can also be viewed on the CTT website, and can be filtered into men’s and women’s results, and age group categories.
Significantly, popular time trials results platform Spindata is also on board with the changes, as is real-time time trialling results app Resultssheet.
It means road bike riders in search of a more level playing field and recognition of their efforts no longer need to search out ‘road bike only’ time trials.
The hope is that it will attract new blood to the sport and inspire those already in it to race more regularly.
“Recognising road bikes as their own category is all about improving accessibility and making time trialling available to everybody,” said CTT chair Andrea Parish.
“Having a separate road bike competition and rankings system is very much part of the process of taking time trialling back to the ‘every person’s sport’ that it once was – and to where it needs to be for the future. There’s still space for elite athletes, but we’re also creating space that people can occupy in different ways and we’re making sure that their achievements are properly recognised.”
The move comes at an important juncture for the sport in the UK, which has seen a dramatic drop-off in entries in recent years that has accelerated sharply post-covid-19, with many events cancelled last year. Race organisers wanting to attract road bike riders will also have a less onerous job as they will no longer have to put on a separate category – although the CTT says that the calendar for 2023 will remain unchanged.
Whether road bike riders will enjoy their own prize list as well as their own category will be down to individual organisers and isn’t something the CTT can dictate, aside from in National Championships. However, Parish says: “I would like to see a move towards [road bike prizes]. My hope is that increasing numbers of road bike entries rewrites the prize narrative itself.”
“We’re taking it back to being ‘every person’s sport’”